Kim Chi-ha's "Road to Seoul", translation

In the final lecture of my course, I used Kim Chi-ha's famous poem "Road to Seoul" from the 1970 collection Hwangt'o (Yellow earth) to illustrate how the rural migration, urbanization and societal change in general were represented at the time. 김지하-서울길 간다 울지 마라 간다 흰 고개 검은 고개 목마른 고개 넘어 팍팍한 서울길 몸팔러 간다 Kim Chi-ha: Tie Souliin Menen älkää itkekö, menen yli valkoisen, mustan, janoisen solan raskasta tietä Souliin itseäni myymään 언제야 돌아오리란 언제야 웃음으로 돌아오리란 댕기풀 안스러운 약속도 없이 간다 울지 마라 간다 모질고 모진 세상에 살아도 분꽃이 잊힐까 밀 냄새가 잊힐까 사뭇사뭇 못 잊을 것을 꿈꾸다 눈물 젖어 돌아올 것을 Lupaustakaan antamatta siitä palaanko joskus palaanko joskus nauraen Menen älkää itkekö, menen Vaikka maailma olisi kuinka julma unohdanko kukat, vehnän tuoksun koskaan ei unohdu unista kyyneltyneenä, paluu 간다 울지 마라 간다 하늘도 시름겨운 목마른 고개 넘어 팍팍한 서울길 몸팔러 간다 Menen älkää itkekö, menen yli taivaankin murehtiman janoisen solan raskasta tietä Souliin itseäni myymään This is a difficult poem, and for some lines I just had to cut corners, especially 댕기풀 안스러운 약속도 없이. But otherwise, it looks nice and should convey what Kim meant it to. Kim Chi-ha has been translated to English, "The Road to Seoul" included. I can't find the whole translation of that poem online, but from the excerpts I gather that line repeated twice, 몸팔러 간다, has been rendered as I'm going to sell my body. Maybe I'm partial, but doesn't the Finnish itseäni myymään sound much more true to the original? Other translations in this blog: • 처음처럼 / 용혜원 Kuin ensi kertaa / Yong Hye-won • 山中問答 in the post Hunjang in the mountains, via Korean-language translation • Yom Sang-jin in Finnish (from Taebaek sanmaek) Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: literature/movies ∙ Korea-Finland ∙ Koreanlanguage ∙ Seoul ∙ culturalhistory